More than 1,000 senior Whitehall civil servants are set to receive bonuses of
up to £20,000 each in the next few weeks, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Taxpayers will fund bonuses for senior mandarins worth a total of almost £10 million for the 2010-11 financial year, figures to be published imminently will show.

Ministers in several departments are understood to have urged their officials to waive the “performance related” payments but have been rebuffed amid warnings that the bonuses are a contractual right.

The disclosure is likely to spark anger among millions of lower-paid public sector workers who are facing the prospect of redundancies, wage freezes and cuts to their pensions.

The bonuses have been agreed over the past few weeks and will be paid to a quarter of the senior civil service who will each receive payments of up to ten percent of their salary. It is understood that most Whitehall departments are paying bonuses of between £8,000 and £20,000 to 1,050 people.

One senior Government source described the payments as “outrageous”. “We have tried to get these bonuses stopped but are basically powerless as we are told it’s a legal contractual right,” the source said.

Another source added: “It obviously looks pretty bad but this is the final round of a deal agreed by Labour ministers.”

Details of the bonuses are set to be included in the annual reports of Whitehall departments which are due to be published in the coming days – as Parliament breaks up for a lengthy summer holiday.

This has led to concerns that the civil service is trying to "bury" bad news at a time when MPs have left Westminster.

The Daily Telegraph understands that the permanent secretaries at some departments will qualify for payments of up to £20,000.

For example, the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Communities and Local Government Peter Housden earns £185,000 a year and could therefore receive a bonus of £18,500. The Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, Dame Helen Ghosh is paid around £180,000 a year.

“The average was not exactly big bucks,” she told a committee of MPs. “The average was... I think the very maximum for the highest earners was £10,000.”

Yesterday, Government departments refused to release details of the bonuses being paid. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills even said that it was unable to provide details because of the “transparency agenda”, saying they would have to give the information to the Cabinet Office before it could be published.

The bonus system has faced repeated criticism in the past with accusations that civil servants are receiving bonuses for “getting out of bed”.

The Environment Agency faced outrage in 2007, after it paid directors five-figure bonuses shortly after flood defences failed during the summer floods.

Civil servants at the MoD have also received generous bonuses, despite chaotic management and serious problems with procurement.

Last year, the Prime Minister announced that the pay packets of cabinet ministers would be cut by 5 per cent. He also insisted that Whitehall bonuses were decreased.

The generous pay-outs to senior civil servants come amid increasing threats of public sector strikes. Around 100,000 civil servants went on strike last month because of a row over public sector pensions.

The trade unions are threatening to cause massive disruption this autumn with a series of rolling strikes. The unions also insist that frontline services will be hit by cuts. This week, the Fire Brigades Union warned that the fire service is in danger of reaching "breaking point" because of spending cuts.

Last night, a spokesman for the Cabinet Office defended the payments and said that the total amount paid out in bonuses would drop compared to last year.

“This Government is committed to making sure only those civil servants that make an exceptional contribution will be rewarded,” the spokesman said.

“We will restrict bonuses for senior civil servants to only the top 25 percent of performers.

“This is the fair way to reward excellence while delivering better value for money and providing strong leadership on reducing the record deficit.”